Gardner, Bennet use FAA bill to advance proposals on GTMO, better air travel

WASHINGTON — With little happening in Congress nowadays, a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration has become a hot target for lawmakers looking to get something into law — and Colorado’s two U.S. senators are no exception.

The FAA bill is up for debate this week and Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is pushing to attach an amendment that would bar aircraft from using federal airspace to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to anywhere in the U.S.

It’s “another avenue to stop the transfer of terrorists to our backyards,” he said in a statement.

The provision is Gardner’s latest salvo in a long-running fight against the administration and its effort to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Gardner has said that he doesn’t any of the several dozen terrorism suspects still held there to be transferred to U.S. prisons and — following a visit there a month ago — suggested Guantanamo Bay be used to house Islamic State fighters caught by U.S. forces in Syria.

“There’s a real question of what the United States could do if we detain somebody out of Syria right now,” he said at the time.

The administration has countered that the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay hurts Washington’s reputation abroad and that U.S. facilities already safely hold prisoners convicted of terrorism.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is eyeing the FAA bill for a different reason. The Colorado Democrat wants to make flying less of a headache for parents.

Notably, his legislation would ensure parents can stay with their children as they go through airport security checks. It also would allow pregnant women to pre-board flights while creating new guidelines that would prevent airlines from charging parents extra money for sitting next to their small children when check into their flights.

“Young children shouldn’t be separated from their parents on a flight. It’s not safe, it can be a traumatic experience for families, and it’s disruptive to the passengers around them. And forcing a parent to pay an extra fee to sit next to their child is wholly unfair,” Bennet said in a statement.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.